Westermill National Park Conservationists 

Our mantle focused on Westermill National Park- a fictional, huge green space full of exciting nature, as well as visitors and local residence.

In class we explored what a national park is, creating Westermill national park and exploring some of the roles of the people who work there maintaining the park. Whilst working on the park in our role as conservationists, we met farmer Oliver who was looking to develop some luxury lodges. Life as a farmer can be tough and he was hoping to generate some extra income to help him keep the farm running.

We explored the site and discovered a very old looking standing stone, as well as a bizarre rock. Whilst exploring the rock, it split open revealing a hole in the ground filled with all sorts of bits of old looking objects- even bones. We called in some specialist archaeologists who took some of the artefacts back to London with them. They then contacted us to inform us that these objects were of huge historical significance and that they would like to explore the site further.

However, Oliver was already beginning to think about developing the site. We needed to convince him that the findings were important. The archaeologist sent us some preliminary information about the different items.  We spoke about ideas we had for the site, and Oliver agreed that a museum that attracted visitor would be a good alternative. However, he was concerned that there are a lot of museums and ours would have to be unique, telling the story of this find.

To find out about the story behind the objects, we used drama and went back in time. We explored the role the items had in bringing bronze to our country, from the pot that came from mainland Europe with a traveller, to the gold earrings used to obtain his services for a tribe that used to live in Westermill. We learnt about the lives of the tribe in the Bronze Age, and their struggles to survive. We also learnt of the importance of this one, significant traveller in bringing bronze to Britian and the Westermill tribe.

Upon meeting with the archaeologist again, they showed us what they had discovered- a skeleton! We quickly realised this was the skeleton of the traveller we had explored but weren’t sure why he was buried with all these items. We used drama again to explore his burial, the significance of him and the grave goods he was gifted, as well as the erecting of the standing stone as a place of worship.

We were then able to help plan a unique, drive through museum ensuring David would be able to keep his farm running, the site was preserved, and we were fulfilling our role as conservationists.